Ageing, health and wellbeing

To date, HCI for mental health has primarily responded to challenges in the
treatment of mental illness, with a focus on therapy access and engagement.
However, approaches to improving and protecting people's mental wellbeing have
received less attention. Prompted by recent discussions in Western Healthcare
and Psychology, we argue for a more holistic approach to promoting mental
health that expands the field's focus to include strategies for enhancing
mental wellbeing. A closer consideration of mental wellbeing can increase the
effectiveness of mental health interventions, help in preventing mental illness
and relapse, and extend our knowledge as to how we can support people to
flourish as individuals and enhance their quality of life more generally. Our
aim is to encourage more research on positive aspects of mental health in the
treatment and care provision of people with mental health problems, and to
support preventive approaches. To this end, the paper provides a comprehensive
definition of mental wellbeing as positive emotional, psychological and social
health; presents a review of HCI literature illustrating how the field is
beginning to respond to the mental wellbeing agenda; and proposes avenues for
future design and research in this area.

We report on the necessity, design, proof of concept implementation, and
initial evaluation of a basic prototyping kit for senior citizens. Even though
elderly users have a rich level of experience and are increasingly computer
literate, the maker culture largely ignores them as a productive group. This
study presents the development of an explorative prototyping kit especially for
senior citizens. Its qualitative evaluation was conducted in multiple small
workshops with 15 participants in total. The results indicate positive
acceptance of the developed tool overall but also show challenges in the design
and a lower-than-expected connection to pre-existing work experiences in the
participants. It calls for a review of a purely constructivist approach and a
necessary re-framing of computing classes in senior education.

Upper limb weakness is one of the most distressing, long-term consequences
of stroke and can be difficult to rehabilitate due to an overreliance on the
opposing limb in everyday life. Previous studies have shown potential for
cueing to improve upper limb rehabilitation, although these have been conducted
in clinical settings. In this paper we describe CueS, a wrist worn cueing
device which prompts the wearer to move their upper limb more frequently in
their day to day lives. We conducted two, week-long 'in the wild' deployments
of CueS with seven participants to obtain reflections and experiences around
using the device. All participants reported increased general activity levels
from wearing CueS and objective data showed increased levels of activity
following cue provision. We reflect upon the potential of wearable cueing
devices for upper limb rehabilitation after stroke.

Monitoring technologies and sensors have huge potential to support elderly
people live independently at home. Providing healthcare professionals with
access to sensor data displaying a patient's activities and health vitals could
deliver numerous benefits, including allowing continuous care, presenting
positive/negative trends which healthcare professionals can act upon, or
alerting to immediate problems. This paper presents three phases of early-stage
research from a larger study, which is concerned with investigating how sensor
technologies can be utilised to facilitate frail elderly people transition from
hospital to home. The focus of the research discussed in this paper is to
explore healthcare professionals' preferences for using and visualising sensor
data.

Digital civics

HCI researchers are increasingly conducting civically engaged research in
the wild to design technologies for social action that aim to empower
communities at the grassroots level. However, there are very few descriptions
of HCI interventions that have achieved sustained community engagement and
social impact. We discuss three tensions that are hindering HCI's capacity to
produce both research and social contributions and suggest how to overcome
them.

Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding whereby citizens contribute
to funding community-based projects ranging from physical structures to
amenities. Though civic crowdfunding has great potential for impact, it remains
a developing field in terms of project success and widespread adoption. To
explore how technology shapes interactions and outcomes within civic projects,
our research addresses two interrelated questions: how do offline communities
engage online across civic crowdfunding projects, and, what purpose does this
activity serve both projects and communities? These questions are explored
through discussion of types of offline communities and description of online
activity across civic crowdfunding projects. We conclude by considering the
implications of this knowledge for civic crowdfunding and its continued
research.

Content analysis of a rural community's interaction with its cultural
heritage through a longitudinal display deployment

In this paper we present content analysis related to our longitudinal
deployment of the Wray Photo Display within a rural village community. The
situated display based system enables village residents to upload images
(typically photos) relating to their community for viewing by fellow residents
and visitors to the village. Residents can also provide a response to pictures
via the system's commenting feature. A content analysis has revealed that the
majority of images uploaded to the system relate to the cultural heritage of
the village (across both 'past' and 'contemporary' categories). Furthermore,
analysis of the comments relating to these images reveals a wide range of use,
including: clarification (e.g. the subject of the photo or the period when it
was taken), identification (e.g. identification of relatives in the photo) and
narratives (e.g. "...my mum & dad rented from Mr Phillipson who lived next
door...").

Games & play

Augmented reality games overlay digital artifacts on a camera feed of the
environment to create fantastic experiences in the real world. The act of
overlaying digital artifacts on a real environment requires detailed
information about the relative pose of the player and digital artifacts be
accurately sensed and computed, which is often beyond the capacity of sensor
systems deployed on commercial devices such as smartphones. Game developers are
adept at creating compelling experiences from a limited or noisy palette of
interactions, but have limited guidance in the case of augmented reality games.
In this paper, we present a novel technique for evaluating the sensitivity of
augmented reality games and game mechanics to input noise by modifying the
sensor input stream of an open source operating system in a controlled manner.
Any game, commercial or academic, that runs on that operating system can be
systematically tested for the user experience impact of differing levels of
sensor input noise. We perform such an experiment on two commercial and one
academic game and determine that similar levels of input noise have very
different impacts on user experience depending on the game design, input
modality, and narrative. The differential impact of noise on user experience is
important because it indicates that proper design decisions can be used
ameliorate or mask sensor noise issues.

Emerging technologies make mobile devices promising tools to be used for
e-participation. Some municipalities have already recognized this and created
m-participation apps. One of the greatest challenges when it comes to civic
engagement is encouraging citizens to become involved. This study explores the
potential of game elements as motivational factor. An overview of
e-participation tools that already employ game elements is given. The main
contribution of this study are the findings of an experiment that investigated
the effects of introducing game elements to an m-participation prototype. Our
results show that while game elements provide an initial incentive to become
active, the most important aspect for engaging people in urban governance
processes is for the governance to show that they are listening and take civic
input serious. We further provide recommendations for future research.

We present BlobSnake, a casual game designed to help generate new feature
representations in the context of Human Activity Recognition. Feature selection
is an essential task to be completed in the context of developing any
non-trivial activity recognition system for a new set of activities. Presently,
using anything other than a set of standard features requires a considerable
amount of effort to be expended upon expert driven algorithm development.
BlobSnake is an alternative approach which uses direct interaction with real
sensor data by non-experts in order to develop additional features, thus
lowering the cost and expertise otherwise required to produce more effective
recognition performance. Our experiments demonstrate that our method improves
upon the state of the art performance of standard features in a challenging
recognition scenario.

Social activities with offline tangibles at an interactive painting exhibit
in a children's cultural centre

This paper describes an empirical study of a tangible interactive painting
installation at a children's cultural centre. The study focuses on how social
interactions are related to features of the interactive installation. The
findings concern awareness and communication within groups, mediation of
control through physical objects, how groups used tangibles outside of their
turn with the installation to plan, negotiate and build up anticipation of
their engagement with the exhibit. Interactions within groups as well as
between the active 'operator' at an exhibit and the rest of the group are
presented providing insights as to how the exhibit relates to the social
context. Finally, we discuss how the findings could be used for future design
of group interactive exhibits that aim to (1) support social engagement such as
planning, sharing experiences and discussions, (2) engage children with the
exhibit topic outside of their interaction with the system and (3) foster
children's anticipation of their interaction with the exhibit. Providing
offline tangibles was found to extend engagement with the exhibit and support
social interactions.

Interfaces

A mathematical description of the speed/accuracy trade-off of aimed movement

Target clicking having proved an indispensable building block of interface
design, it is little surprise that the speed/accuracy trade-off of aimed
movement has always been a keen concern of HCI research. The trade-off is
described by the Fitts law. In HCI and psychology likewise, the traditional
approach has focused on the time-minimisation paradigm of Fitts [5], ignoring
other relevant paradigms in which the Fitts law fails, such as the
spread-minimisation paradigm of Schmidt et al. [18]. This paper aims at
unearthing and consolidating the foundations of the speed/accuracy trade-off
problem. Taking mean movement time as our speed measure and relative spread as
our accuracy measure, we show that a small set of obvious mathematical axioms
predict not only the data from the Fitts and the Schmidt paradigms but also the
data from the more recent dual-minimisation paradigm of Guiard et al. [7]. The
new mathematical framework encourages a more complete understanding: not only
is it possible to estimate an amount of resource, a quantity equivalent to the
classic throughput, it is also possible to characterize the resource-allocation
strategy -- the other, no less important facet of the trade-off problem which
has been left aside so far. The proposed approach may help HCI practitioners
obtain from their experimental data more reliable and more complete information
on the comparative merits of design options.

Live graphical user interfaces (GUIs) do change responding to user actions,
unlike GUI screenshots, which are often used in studies. The user experiences
and is affected by transitions between the layouts (e.g., webpages or mobile
app screens) of interactive systems. Such transitions affect the overall
impression of system quality and should be accounted for by any model or
computational method estimating the quality and claiming high ecological
validity. However, the recent efforts aspiring to predict GUI quality
computationally have only relied on homepages or home screens of apps, or their
screenshots. The dynamics of GUI -- GUI change across pages and layouts, or
shorter, visual diversity -- have been given little attention. Here we present
an initial exploration of GUI visual diversity. In three studies, we
demonstrate that a) GUI diversity can be measured computationally; b) GUI
diversity correlates with GUI aesthetics impression and other, more high-level
GUI-preference constructs; and c) GUI diversity matters in both website and
mobile app contexts. We believe the concept of GUI visual diversity deserves
further studies.

Do as I say: exploring human response to a predictable and unpredictable
robot

Humans are known to feel engaged and at the same time apprehensive when
presented with unpredictable behaviour of other agents or humans. Predictable
behaviour is thought to be reliable but boring. We argue that is imperative to
evaluate human response to (un)predictable robots for a better understanding of
Human Robot Interaction Scenarios, manipulated across robot embodiment. The
results of our controlled experiment with 23 participants showed that
predictable robot behaviour resulted in more patience on behalf of the user and
robot embodiment had no significant effect. In conclusion, we also discuss the
importance of robot role on the perception of predictability in robot
behaviour.

A users interaction with a film typically involves a One Way Affect (1WA),
in which the film being consumed has an affect on the consumer. Recent advances
in physiological monitoring technology however has facilitated the notion of a
Two Way Affect Loop (2WAL), in which a film piece can be dynamically affected
by a consumers physiology or behaviour. This paper outlines an agenda for
further investigating 2WAL, setting research questions and the influence of
related research areas.

Mobile & wearable

In recent years, wearable devices have been an emerging trend on the market.
Though, recent studies show that people abandon their wearable devices after a
couple of months. One of the main reasons supposed is the technical look and
feel of the gadgety devices and thus, an insufficient suitability for daily
use. Digital jewellery, the concept of concealing technology behind fashionable
jewellery, is a promising approach to address this problem. However, little
research has been done to clearly define the requirements for digital
jewellery. In this work we present the design and results of an online survey,
in which we investigated, which requirements are important for digital
jewellery, and how important specific requirements are perceived by potential
users. Overall, participants considered functionality, form factor, and
interaction and display design as very important, whereas they found body
location, context awareness and customisability less important. We also found
differences in the importance ratings, that are related to gender and age. Our
results will help designers of digital jewellery to focus not only on the
right, but also on the more important requirements first.

Captchas are used as a security mechanism on the web to distinguish human
users from automated programs. However, existing captchas are not well-adapted
to mobile devices and may lead users to abandon tasks. Although Web developers
have many available captchas, they lack the tools to evaluate if these captchas
are suitable for their mobile site. In this paper, we present domain specific
usability heuristics for evaluating captchas on smartphones. To assess
effectiveness, we compared our proposed heuristics against Nielsen's during
evaluations of four captcha schemes on smartphones. The custom heuristics
revealed more major problems and more detailed feedback on the problems than
Nielsen's.

Exploring the overlap between wearable computing and disability
discrimination law

Typically, Wearable Computing has raised a wide range of negative legal
concerns, ranging from complaints about its potential misuse by car drivers,
onto concerns around privacy, confidentiality, and copyright. The result has
been that Wearable Computing systems -- most notably Google Glass -- have been
banned from being used in a wide range of public spaces. This presentation will
explore the overlap between Wearable Computing and Disability Discrimination
Law. Through the mechanism of proportionality, Disability Discrimination Law
presents a positive case for permitting and actually supporting wearable
computing in wider society, creating the scenario where someone with a
disability would be entitled to use such technology (regardless of opposition).
The Mental Capacity aspects of Disability Discrimination Law also raise novel
legal questions around the limits upon who might be able to use Wearable
Assistive Technologies, and some significant wider implications for wearable
computing more generally.

In the last years, wearable devices have been an emerging trend on the
market. Today, several wearable devices present information through light
spots, especially those used for self-tracking. In this work we present a field
evaluation of an adaptive light bracelet that serves as a reminder of fluid
intake. We investigated how users and observers experience the bracelet under
real-world conditions in comparison to a non-adaptive bracelet. Context
awareness is implemented in that the LED's brightness changes according to an
ongoing event. In a 16-participant 2-weeks experiment we found participants and
observers experienced the adaptive bracelet more positively. Further, we found
observers experienced the adaptive bracelet significantly more attractively and
could identify significantly better with it. Our results will inspire designers
and developers of wearable light displays.

This paper is an output of a two day 'Festival Lab' held at the Future
Everything Festival, Manchester, UK, March 2015. The Festival Lab invited a
team of academic researchers to develop a model of public engagement during the
festival that would explore specific research questions around mobility, data
awareness, and civic engagement. From this brief the academic team developed
the Festival Lab 'PuBLiC', and created an activity arc that involved
participants borrowing bicycles and responding to structured and unstructured
research questions about the future of cycling and data use in the city of
Manchester. Equipped with iPhones with bespoke software for collecting short
textual comments, photographs and GPS data, participants became integral actors
in one-day field studies, taking the role of both subjects and authors of this
paper. We present findings and observations noted by participants and
researchers, discussing the significance of these as triangulated in a closing
workshop plenary session. Finally, we conclude by reflecting on the paper
creation process itself, a collaborative, intensive, fast-paced approach that
challenges the very framework of academic authority and public engagement.

Life through the lens: a qualitative investigation of human behaviour with
an urban photography service

The proliferation of computation in our everyday environment enables new
types of interaction and communication devices. Understanding the dialogue
between users and such technology is crucial to the success of future urban
computing deployments. We investigate human behaviour in public spaces using a
public photography service deployed on interactive public displays in an urban
city. Through the analysis of user-generated snapshots we show that the service
was rapidly appropriated outside its intended purpose, resulting in use that
differs substantially from those previously documented in photography
literature. We reflect on the reasons why the service was appropriated in this
way and explore the evolution of photography in urban contexts. Ultimately, our
findings help ground our understanding of human behaviour in urban spaces and
thus contribute to the design of future Ubicomp deployments.

In this paper we describe a novel photo sharing system called 4streams. This
is an ambient photo display that allows a small group of users to keep in touch
through a kind of visual twitter feed of concurrent photographs from their
mobile phones. The photographs of up to four users are displayed in a dynamic
collage in the four quadrants of a dedicated ambient display, with photographs
to each quadrant arriving in real time as photographs are taken/uploaded.
Historical photos can also be browsed or played back in lock-step with each
other, as a reminder of what each member of the group was doing over the same
period of time. The system was trailed over seven weeks by an extended family
distributed over three countries. The findings suggest that the system
increases the social connection and presence between children, parents and
grandparents of an intergenerational family living apart. This was not only
through 'visual status' images of family members living in different places,
but also through updates of collocated members travelling away from home, and
deliberately crafted images designed to elicit responses or trigger discussions
in other media. The implications of these findings for theories of photo
sharing are discussed.

Changing patterns of domestic life mean that it is increasingly common for
people to work away from home for extended periods. Communications technologies
are arguably positioned to help repair ensuing emotional disconnects. We are
exploring the use of technology to support re-engagement in the quotidian
rituals of family life to foster emotional connectedness whilst away from home.
Adopting a design research approach, we develop five sensibilities for
productively critiquing and developing design proposals for such domestic
technologies. These sensibilities, Temporality, Expression, Connectivity,
Reciprocality and Perceivable Volume, are derived from a critical analysis of
68 extant designs, which we illustrate with six exemplars supporting differing
levels of ritualistic behaviour. To demonstrate the critical utility of these
sensibilities for design processes, we interrogate two early design sketches.
We contribute further critical reflections on design research methods and the
role of 'design critique' in technology development.

Privacy & security

Privacy and surveillance take on new forms through social software
technologies. Privacy may not be achieved by being let alone, rather, by
choosing a group of people whom are trusted with one's data. Similarly,
surveillance takes the form of monitoring users' data rather than monitoring
users themselves. To offer privacy and counter surveillance, the "privacy as
control" paradigm focuses on approaches that offer as much data control as
possible. In practice, offering control to users depends on assigning control
to non-user entities, who may have surveillance capabilities, which results in
an interdependency of privacy and surveillance. This interdependency is
problematic and contradicts what data control approaches should offer. In this
paper, we examine this interdependency in data control within social software.
We put forward criteria to evaluate the degree of control and privacy and the
degree of surveillance entailed by a data control approach. We perform a
comparative analysis of data control approaches in the technical and the legal
context. The analysis shows how certain aspects of surveillance are deeply
rooted in the realisations of "privacy as control". We argue that data control
approaches should offer transparency, reciprocity and a balanced degree of
control as a first step towards addressing the interdependency of privacy and
surveillance.

People make security choices on a daily basis without fully considering the
security implications of those choices. In this paper we present a prototype
application which promotes the choice of secure wireless network options,
specifically when users are unfamiliar with the wireless networks available.
The app was developed based on behavioural theory, choice architecture and good
practices informed by HCI design. The app includes several options to 'nudge'
users towards selecting more secure public wireless networks. This paper
outlines the development and the results of an evaluation of some of the
potential app nudges (specifically, presentation order and colour coding).
Colour coding was found to be a powerful influence, less so with the order in
which we listed the Wi-Fi networks, although the colour x order combination was
most effective. The paper contributes to the body of evidence on the
effectiveness of cyber-security interventions to empower the user to make more
informed security decisions.

In this paper we present the design and evaluation of a mobile user friendly
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans
Apart) scheme based on our previous work. Unlike the commonly used character
recognition based CAPTCHA schemes that require a user to type the distorted
characters shown in an image to pass security checks, this scheme allows a user
to use gestures to operate specific objects on the screen so as to complete a
CAPTCHA quiz. Moreover, it uses partially processed or distorted textual
instruction to prevent a bot from easily figuring out the objects to operate
for retaining the security of the scheme as a bot cannot utilize context
effects as easily as human users can. A comparative study is also conducted to
understand the usability performance of this gestured based scheme against
Google ReCAPTCHA, a popular character recognition scheme, where better
usability has been reported with the former when both were used on smartphones.

Blockchain, an innovative public ledger of transactions that underpins
digital currencies such as Bitcoin, has the potential to open up and offer
radical alternatives to civic life, democracy and society. Yet there is
currently only a small, technically savvy section of society who understand its
principles. Therefore in order to work through and realize the potential of the
blockchain and its transferability across society we need to find means to open
up and reduce its 'ineffable' nature. This paper presents and reflects on an
approach that made the complexity of the blockchain understandable or 'effable'
using physical modeling. The design-based approach adopted a tangible system of
Lego and colored stickers to allow participant-actors to physically enact
transactions on a Blockchain Lego 'block'. This modeled simplification was not
designed as a comprehensive or accurate explanation of Bitcoin and Blockchain
but rather as a prompt for opening up rich dialogue and insightful lines of
questioning.

Designing for reflection II

The term design fiction was originally coined in 2005 by the Science Fiction
author Bruce Sterling. In the 10 years since, design fiction has received
considerable interest from a range disciplines most notably HCI which
increasingly draws upon generative methods and creative practices. In this
paper we consider examples of recent HCI research that refers to design fiction
in order to highlight commonalities and ambiguities in how the term is
interpreted and used. We argue that design fiction is a compelling and powerful
concept but is inherently ambiguous. We therefore suggest strategies to
disambiguate communications 'about design fiction' in order to strengthen
applications 'of design fiction'.

MyRun: balancing design for reflection, recounting and openness in a
museum-based participatory platform

Cultural organisations are increasingly looking towards using digital
technologies to supplement, augment and extend visitors' experiences of
exhibits and museums. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of
MyRun, a 'participatory platform' for a museum. Our goal with MyRun was to use
experience-centered design principles of reflecting, recounting and openness as
a basis for engaging visitors in sharing stories about experiences related to a
nationally significant cultural event. We undertook a qualitative evaluation of
the system based upon observations of its use, the contributions visitors made
to the platform, and interviews with 10 visitors. We discuss how visitors
approached MyRun, contributed and browsed stories, and the challenges
associated with the expectations visitors and curators placed on cultural
exhibits. We close by identifying a series of design opportunities for future
participatory platforms in museum settings.

Rule and theme discovery in human interactions with an 'internet of things'

The 'Internet of Things' promises a society of smart objects which can work
towards common purposes. For HCI, core questions relate to how people might
become members of, or otherwise interact with, such a society. In this paper,
we address these questions through a simple experiment in which people interact
with smart objects, each of which has a specific sensing
processing-communicating capability. In the experiment, objects had to be
arranged such that their individual goals were satisfied. The human's role was
partly to move the boxes and partly to ensure that all goals were met. The task
was presented either as a rule discovery task (i.e., to deduce the goal of each
object) or as a theme (pattern) discovery task (i.e., to deduce an appropriate
arrangement of objects to satisfy the goals). In other words, the human task
involved either a bottom-up analysis of goals or a top-down analysis of
configuration. Differences between these conditions were found. The study
presents a simple paradigm which, through modification of objects and rules,
allows study of human interaction with smart objects in a goal-directed manner.
The main conclusions relate to the ways in which people make sense of the smart
objects.

Critical design is a powerful methodology for HCI research that contributes
to personal benefit and social renewal. We propose performance studies as a way
of implementing and extending critical design.

Working across discipline and culture

Elucidating the role and use of bioinformatics software in life science
research

Life science research requires critical evaluation of data handling and
analytical software usability. We present the results of semi-structured
interviews which provide insight into the effects of bioinformatics software
usability on life science research. Results from our study confirm much of the
prior anecdotal evidence of standalone bioinformatics software usability. More
importantly, we show that usability issues and life scientists' lack of
expertise in applying computational methods to biological research is limiting
their research objectives and contributing to researchers' reliance on
computational experts to conduct their research.

This study uses a phenomenological approach to examine software developers'
empathy with designers, as experienced by interaction designers. The results
show many views on developers' empathy and on the context of the phenomenon,
including that developers tend to think design is unnecessary or a luxury that
is not needed in order to create successful products. The development is
instead seen as the most important part of the development process, and
developers take design decisions on their own, many times based on a limited
understanding, or disregard, of the design as a whole. Prototypes, sharing work
place, and structured communication is said to improve collaboration. Overall
however, the understanding among developers for design work is perceived as
low. The Interaction designers have also experienced this lack of understanding
at an organizational level.

To create successful energy interventions that motivate young people to save
energy, it is crucial to understand the context of their energy use behaviours.
This paper sheds light on similarities and differences in British and German
students' use of energy, attitudes, motivations, and appropriate design
suggestions concerning technology-led interventions that aim to foster
sustainable energy consumption and behavioural change. Results suggest that
students' current use of energy, barriers to energy saving, as well as design
requirements for such an intervention resemble each other in both countries.
However, British and German students differ significantly in their general
attitudes towards saving energy, their willingness to save energy and their
knowledge about how to save energy. These findings should be taken into account
when designing energy interventions in the UK and in Germany, and more
generally, highlight the importance of cross-cultural differences when
designing such interventions.

This study aims to compare the use of specific mid-air gestures across
platforms (Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion and Myo Armband) in order to identify
the most recurrent gestures and their functions within the interface. 250
applications were analysed and 15 common gestures were mapped within this
study. Results will contribute to wider research on mid-air gesture-based
interfaces and assistive technology.

Developing computational thinking through pattern recognition in early years
education

Alongside recent UK initiatives on computing education, coupled with demands
for the development of broader societal digital competencies, we propose that
computational thinking skills can be taught to early year students and
highlight a method for teaching a specific aspect, namely pattern recognition.
Although our example might appear specific to this context, we identify how
this could readily be extended to a broader class of educational settings,
proposing an underlying pedagogical framework. Finally, a proof-of-concept
prototype, corresponding to the implementation of the method, is highlighted.

This paper describes the development of a technology designed for social
connectedness. The goal was to design and develop a technology that allows
older adults to be more connected with family and/or close ones. Bridging Unmet
Modes of Participation (BUMP) respond to the needs of designing technology
products for inclusion and integration of older adults and addressing issues of
isolation and social disconnected experienced with the aging population.

A better understanding of our environment is vital if we are to make
informed decisions about a diverse range of issues from transport to energy
security. But at a local level, good quality data that could help inform and
engage communities is in short supply. The primary sources project adopts
concepts of participatory sensing to inform the development of a mobile based
digital pet game for environmental data collection. This paper describes the
initial participatory workshop leading to the design of a digital pet game,
aimed primarily at children, that aims to explore the connection between open
data collection and increasing community engagement.

A virtual "window to the outside world": initial design and plans for
evaluation

Qualitative interviews have informed the design of technology aimed to bring
the outside in, to older adults who are housebound due to a chronic health
problem and living in remote and rural areas. This paper introduces 'Window to
the Outside World'; an app designed to bring live and recorded, local events
into the homes of older adults, with the aim of targeting wellbeing.
Forthcoming evaluation is discussed.

"Aye, have a dream #IndyRef": use of Instagram during the Scottish
referendum

In this paper we investigate the use of Instagram by citizens engaged with
the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014. Using qualitative analysis, we
explore the themes that were evident in the images that Instagram users posted
in the run up to the vote and highlight the importance of future work in
understanding the use of imagery in social media during political campaigns.

Researchers in public funded science consortia agree that making their data
accessible with the community is their obligation. Those mandated to use
Community Data Systems (CDSs) prefer to share data with their collaborators and
funders rather than make it open access. Their rationale to choose against open
sharing includes the lack of incentives and lapses of memory. Features that
address these two aspects are not included in current CDS implementations. We
speculate that an interface framed as a device to secure data citations would
positively influence researchers choices. We are performing a series of on-line
experiments with subjects from the Life Sciences using the SEEK4Science
platform as test-bed. One possible implication of our results is that
Libertarian paternalism could be included in the Community Data Systems' design
toolkit as a viable alternative to the current practices.

In this paper, we present the design, implementation and evaluation of a
simple and user-friendly interface for a home automation system. Our approach
is based on speech; given that this allows a more natural way of interacting
with the system. The use of speech also improves accessibility since people
with impaired vision can potentially use it. The interface is based on Android
and thus, it runs on any Android compatible devices. Alternatively to the
interface implemented, we introduce a mock-up of what the ultimate design would
look like. Finally, we present the results from an evaluation of the system
performed on 30 individuals between the ages of 20-29 years old. These results
show an overall broad acceptance of the proposed system.

Two dimensional static maps and three dimensional space-time cubes are among
the most studied techniques to visualize human movement data. Previous research
suggests that both techniques are useful in different types of tasks. However,
the analysis of trajectory data may not be focused in just one type of task,
motivating further studies to quantify the advantages of combining both types
of techniques. This paper describes our work-in-progress addressing this issue,
proposing the combination of 2D maps and 3D space-time cubes for human
trajectory visualization, and overviewing possible metrics for its evaluation.

Our daily information tasks are often completed with people in mind, but
these significant associations are underexploited in the design of information
systems. We report preliminary results exploring the nature of manually
constructed contact groupings, to aid in the completion of information tasks by
examining their creation, structure, and descriptions.

Magnetic Confinement Fusion machines called tokamak (e.g. ITER and WEST
projects), as well as many industrial projects, require a high integration
level in a confined volume. The feasibility of installation and maintenance by
an operator has to be considered in the early stages of the design. Virtual
reality technologies have opened new perspectives and solutions to take into
account assembly and maintenance constraints, using virtual mock-ups. In our
applications, the human factor takes an important role. Since the operator
interacts in a very tight and confined environment, he has to pay attention to
his whole body relative to the virtual environment, in the absence of haptic
feedback. In this context, enriched sensorial information, called "collision
awareness feedback", must be defined, to favour an appropriate operator's
spatial behavior with respect to the environment. In this paper, we present a
preliminary study, testing the effect of vibrotactile feedback in a simple
tracking task, compared to a pure visual feedback.

Paper-based web connected objects and the internet of things through EKKO

Paper has existed as a communications 'platform' for thousands of years.
It's 'versioning history' spans papyrus, parchment and pulp, and when paper
became a scalable and mass-production item, most famously via the Guttenberg
press, it sparked unparalleled social and political change. It's a technology
that's had 'impact'. More recently, News and Information -- a sector with paper
at its core -- has seen substantial editorial and commercial disruption from
digital communications networks. This paper outlines a collaborative project
between journalism, media and technology researchers, and commercial product
designers, exploring the potential of paper-based web-connected objects. Our
work examines how emergent conductive ink technologies could offer a disruptive
alternative to existing media products, and explores how to create, power and
populate a connected paper platform, and analyse user activity. Through a range
of industry partnerships with newspaper, magazine and book publishers, our
research creates new paper affordances and interactions, and positions paper as
a digital disruptor.

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is a good candidate for scaling up complex
systems thanks to the principle of separation of concerns. In HCI, models
describe the UI at different levels of abstraction and are matched to each
other with a variety of relationships. However, MDE puts HCI designers in front
of a new problem which is mastering the complexity of many and possibly huge
models. Parallel to this evolution, "Big Data" is an important research trend.
It brings new perspectives to deal with "Big Models". The paper presents MoVi
(Model Visualization), an interactive environment that bridges the gap between
these two trends by processing models as data.

Characteristics of hand gesture navigation: a case study using a wearable
device (MYO)

The understanding of characteristics of gestures, such as ergonomic,
cognitive and social aspects could potentially contribute to an interface
design mediated by hand gestures. In this research, a questionnaire model is
implemented to suggest some guidelines about the use and gestures of MYO
armband in a map application. The user-feedback and observations found during
our testing have led us to offer some practical insights to designers and
developers on how the prototype of gesture applications on MYO can be extended.

In this Work-In-Progress we discuss our work on designing attention for
multi-screen TV experiences. We first briefly describe the current trends, and
then progress to touch on two investigations we have conducted. In the first
study we look at current viewing habits, paying particular attention to how we
deal with attention overload when viewing secondary devices while watching
television. Then, we go on to describe work we have conducted into
investigating how we may orchestrate attention between displays. We conclude by
discussing our work's current trajectory, and then go on to state what it could
mean for broadcasters and those who wish to design applications for
multi-display TV experiences.

Web design galleries are important sources of inspiration in early phases of
web design. However they showcase graphical elements without any promotion of
interactive features. This paper presents I++, a web design gallery, centered
on interaction: it pinpoints the key innovative interactive features of web
sites through three levels of presentation of interactivity.

Designing to promote behaviour change requires bringing sociocultural and
psychological aspects to light. By connecting findings in these aspects from
user-centred activities and behaviour change literature, a set of guidelines
has been proposed to design for leveraging behaviour change towards energy
saving. The guidelines include associating social media features and energy
consumption monitoring to specific stages in a behaviour change process.

The main aim of this project is to design and prototype a simplified example
of a mobile operating system that makes use of both edge swipe control and
'smart' graphical instructions. The research will consider how these methods
can be used to design a truly inclusive and accessible interface. The
effectiveness of these features will be validated through user experiments and
focus groups over the course of the project, with the findings of user testing
used to inform design practice.

Location-based audio has previously attracted some attention from the HCI
community. This has mainly revolved around knowledge-sharing and creation of
curated experiences as artistic expression. In this paper we present initial
work in which we look at located audio through the lenses of social media, and
present initial work on a social media app -- Droplets -- which seeks to create
new geo-located social media experiences.

This paper reports on a study assessing the use of a digital co-design
method for use in hospital design. Here we present findings on users'
perceptions towards ease of use and behavioural intention of using a digital
co-design method in comparison with using a paper-based co-design method. The
study was conducted in a simulated hospital ward. The results showed that
participants found limitations with the current iteration of digital method
negatively affected their perceptions regarding ease of use compared to the
paper-based method. However, behavioural intention showed a positive trend
towards future selection of digital-based methods over paper-based methods.
Future work will look in depth at what features of the digital method require
improvement to enhance perceptions of ease of use in order to respond to
end-user behavioural intentions.

PneuForm is a new method for interacting with a physical form through
dynamic replication. As fabrics are versatile and have unique properties that
can be used to sense and replicate any object, they can serve as a medium for
creating user interfaces. PneuForm explores the missing real-time connection
between a physical and a digital model, using a flat piece of programmable
fabric. Data is transmitted from a TUI to a GUI through a 3D model, allowing
for a bidirectional interaction (i.e. changes made on the GUI affect the
physical model and vice versa), and thus allows for the material to be
programmed to perform certain actions. To test and evaluate the ideas, we built
prototypes by augmenting a sheet of fabric with sensors and using pneumatic
actuation. PneuForm can contribute to a quicker, more seamless and intuitive
process of ideation, vizualization and fabrication.

The diversity of available Social Network Sites (SNSs) enables people to use
multiple services to fulfill their communication needs. Accordingly, this paper
argues there is value in studying SNSs simultaneously -- that key insights
regarding SNS use will be revealed when multiple services are examined
together. To demonstrate this point, we present a study of 198 Facebook users
with the goal of predicting the likelihood of each being a Twitter user based
on their Facebook usage. Exploratory factor analysis on twelve activity metrics
collected via the Facebook API led to the identification of five discrete usage
dimensions. Of these five dimensions, only those that corresponded to
functionality not available in Twitter significantly (and positively) predicted
ownership of an account. This result suggests complementary use of the two SNSs
based on feature differentiation.

Gone and back: physical interaction on a condensation-based ephemeral
interface

This installation explores an experimental research approach in interface
design through a condensation-based ephemeral interface that employs digital
augmented materiality. Inspired by the experience of using our fingers to write
graffiti on foggy surfaces, the piece recreates this familiar scenario in a
gallery space. By making use of the specific properties and semantics of the
interface material, the design of the installation aims to explore the physical
affordances of the ephemeral interface.
The project aims to gain evidence to support the hypothesis that the
physical affordances of such an ephemeral interface encourage intuitive
interaction in user experience. The set up of the installation also aims to
gather qualitative data for visual analysis of users' intuitive patterns
captured during their interaction with the interface.

In recent years, we could observe a shift from static to more interactive
content and features for public displays. In this paper, we present an initial
user study exploring people's awareness of large public displays and basic
requirements for utilizing such devices for e-participation purposes. Our
preliminary results show that people seem to be mainly aware of basic
installations, which are installed in their daily environment. Interaction is
still limited to touch. While participants rated the amount of information from
governance as sufficient, they saw great value in ideation and feedback
opportunities. However, several points for concerns were raised. Most of them
are connected to trust in governance. Future studies are needed to explore the
design requirements to mitigate those concerns and thus enable an active
participation via urban screens.

LightShare is a sharing mechanism for indoor illumination based on tangible
feedback. It is a modification to conventional adjustable light switches with
the goals of conserving energy. LightShare aims at both residential and
commercial customers that look for affordable and efficient energy saving
solutions. We hope to leverage technology to connect consumers and raise their
awareness of the consequences of their energy consuming behavior in the
community context.

We are experiencing an increase in the number of older adults. This presents
both challenges and opportunities in the field of HCI research in terms of
health self-management technology. This paper presents on-going work to design
a mobile application that supports older adults in managing stress and sleep.
The aim is to explore if sensor technology and a tablet application can be used
to present intuitive feedback on stress levels and sleeping patterns with a
view to reducing stress, improving sleep quality and increasing health and
well-being overall.

Interactions gallery (demonstrations)

This paper describes the Interactions Gallery, a new initiative at British
HCI (BHCI) that seeks to bring a 'pop-up' gallery space to an academic
conference. Submissions were welcomed from creative practitioners, artists and
HCI researchers alike, with the call for work that provokes open discussion
about the conference themes -- on the nature of computers in society and the
future of human-computer interaction (HCI). More specifically, with Lincoln
housing one of only four surviving copies of the Magna Carta the city has taken
a major role in the 2015's 800th anniversary celebrations. This anniversary has
provided a unique historic backdrop for a conference theming relating to the
role interactive technology plays in the enactment of our civic lives.
Interactive technologies are increasingly mediating citizens' relationships to
their privacy, rights, authority, governance and each other. It therefore
seemed fitting to include work for the Interactions Gallery that engages with
the concerns of social renewal, activism, democracy, and grassroots innovation.
Submitted work was diverse in approach, including fine art, performance,
interactive media design, demonstrations and technologically augmented live
experiences. The chairs collectively selected pieces based on their thematic
relevance and the practical staging requirements of the event setting. Work was
documented through the archival publication of abstracts in the conference
proceedings.

Labella is an augmented system that employs non-traditional on-body
interactions and explores the potential of using a mobile device as an
interface to discover and learn about hidden parts of the body (figure 1). The
system is designed to support pelvic fitness in women. It blends wearable and
mobile technologies with modern lifestyle by combining a pair of underwear for
embodied playful interaction, and a mobile phone as a tool for embodied
discovery.
The mobile app connects to the female body through the recognition of
bespoke printed markers on specialist underwear (figure 2). We explore AR as a
tool to help reveal the body in a playful way.
We designed a system that aims to provide an enhanced experience to women in
gaining awareness of their pelvic floor and to promote pelvic fitness. We use
humour to address this topic of taboo and explore how embodied technology can
contribute to make learning more accessible. By augmenting perception, our
altered reality device makes visible the inside out (figure 3). It also shows
potential to enhance engagement in intimate care practices.

The proceedings are the records of the conference. We ask that generators of
personally identifiable information, as objects of cluster analysis and sources
for meta-data matching algorithms.
The vast amounts of data we create as we go through our lives, represents
our actions, interests, intentions, communications, locations, relationships
and behaviors. It's aggregated by third party trackers looking to deliver
advertising, content and services to us, and also used by global surveillance
programs for the cybernetic control of the society.
But when the quantitative methods used in science and business, are applied
to the personal sphere there is always a reduction of complexity. The process
of capture of life into data, the quantification of life, it is a lossy
compression, that uses inexact approximations, rounding and truncation,
producing overload distortion and quantization errors. In a sequence of
calculations, these errors generally accumulate, and often very strong
assumptions are made about mathematical properties that may not at all reflect
what is really going on at the level of micro-processes.
In remote data centers overseas we are all constantly monitored and object
of capture, storage, search, analysis and visualization. Inductive statistics
and concepts from nonlinear system identification reveal relationships,
dependencies and perform predictions of outcomes and behaviors.
We are all these numbers.

Taphobos is an experience that puts a player inside a real coffin whilst
wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. They must work together over voice
communication with a second player outside the coffin who is trying to rescue
the buried player. The second player uses a normal PC screen to navigate a 3D
world in which the coffin is hidden, to find it they must communicate over
headphones to the buried player. This is because there are clues and riddles
hidden in the coffin that only the buried player can see through their VR
headset. All of this must be done whilst the player is in a very confined space
and with limited time due to oxygen, in both the real and virtual worlds.
This work is intended to explore "uncomfortable experiences and
interactions" as part of academic research in the Human Computer Interaction
field (HCI) from an MSc by Research in Computer Science student, James Brown.
The player inside the coffin will experience various emotions as they are put
in and then try to get out of the confined space. Claustrophobia as well as the
fear of being buried alive "taphophobia" may well affect players of the game
and they must cope with these emotions as they play.

Academic research findings are disseminated globally through formal
publications in journals and conferences. In this process, knowledge is
regularly abstracted and consolidated according to well-established formats
with the intention to maintain consistency across a diverse range of work.
Today, not only do researchers accumulate more data than before, they are also
spoiled with data storage options. These storage technologies are in turn
affecting the materialities of knowledge. Perhaps in the near future, academic
authors will be principally concerned with file formats, compatibility, and how
storage and access to their research affects the way it is read. In response I
would like to propose a video essay [1] as a conceptual tool to facilitate
discourse on the future of dissemination in the research community.
The video essay aims to mimic the technical and aesthetic qualities of a
YouTube video genre -- Get Ready With Me (GRWM). YouTube is the video library
of our time, including an expanding range of research films. GRWM: In the
bathroom is a collaboration with a fellow researcher and creates a female
persona in a fictionalized situation where she is confronted with the idea of
herself being distributed as research knowledge, thus engaging the viewer in a
discussion about research subjects and their relation to knowledge
dissemination.

'Ambient walk': a mobile application for mindful walking with sonification
of biophysical data

A recent review by C3 Collaborating for Health [1] suggested that regular
walking is beneficial for enhancing mental health, for example, reducing
physical symptoms and anxiety associated with minor stress. Walking meditation,
one of the mindfulness techniques proposed by Thich Nhat Hanh [2], has the
potential to enable daily access to mindfulness practice eliminating the
distress of learning new techniques. Existing mindfulness applications (such as
'Buddify2' and 'Headspace' [3]) provide users with options and guidance for
mindfulness techniques, yet they are arguably limited in providing real-time
interactive feedback to their user's physical reactions.
'Ambient Walk', inspired by walking meditation, is a mobile application
(app) that aims to explore how ambient sound generated by walking and
meditative breathing, and the practice itself, will impact on user's affective
experience (Figure 1). The prototype is designed to use audio-visual
interaction as an interventional medium that provides a novel means to foster
mindfulness and relaxation. The app generates real-time ambient sound at
certain frequencies according to (i) user's breath detected by the microphone
on the phone and (ii) walking pace detected by the accelerometer. Both tones
generated by the temporal breathing and walking data potentially form a harmony
that captures users' awareness of their 'balancing status' between walking and
breathing. Meanwhile, a control beat at 1Hz is added as a reference of time to
help the user maintain their activities accordingly. A qualitative study is
currently being carried out to investigate user experiences of engaging in the
mindful walking activity supported by this app.

Designing for security is hard without security getting in the way of
design. Unfortunately, security is often promoted through fear, uncertainty,
and doubt (FUD). As a result, the scale of FUD has now become so great that it
hinders people's ability to appreciate messages that security researchers try
to impart [6].
We have created a short documentary film called Designing security through
personas [7]. This film distils the essence of four security design papers
[1,2,3,4], but does so without promoting security through fear. Instead, the
film presents the practical, everyday challenges associated with designing for
security, and does so by screening nothing artificial. For example, Figure 1 is
taken from a scene where affinity diagramming is used to analyse data used to
create personas; the summative results of this analysis are presented in [5].
To convey the challenge of designing for security, the film's visual and
audio design uses mystery as a metaphor for security, and design as synonymous
with solving this mystery; this is illustrated in Figure 2, which is taken from
a scene where the 'designer' imagines three personas as elements of an emergent
solution.
To further reinforce the idea of security design as the unraveling of a
mystery, the film shows the designer observing and collecting data about
forensic investigators, who are themselves collecting data for subsequent
investigation (Figure 3).

'FreeAsInWifi' is a wifi network and captive portal intended to prompt
critical reflection on the multiple meanings of 'free' and 'public' through a
set of playful interactions.
At a time when technology is becoming increasingly integral to all aspects
of public life, this project aims to provide an opportunity for people to
reflect on their own understandings, beliefs and desires of a ubiquitous public
technology: freely available public wifi. The portal is designed for a public
square in Newcastle upon Tyne and is part of an on-going practice-based
research engagement with that space and the people who use it. Inspired by
Paulo Freire's radical pedagogy, the research aims to understand how critical
design can support people in thinking critically and creatively about the world
around them.
While critical design aims to provoke reflection upon social and political
issues, it often fails to facilitate people taking an active role in this
reflection, something Freire identifies as crucial to gaining a critical
understanding. With this in mind, the portal requires people to be actively
engaged in reflection by navigating, making decisions and responding creatively
to the interface and technology.

Sens-Us is an interactive installation that aims to rethink the UK census
and explore how collecting census data can be more dynamic and localized. It
explores how the census can become more integrated in our everyday lives and
more citizen-lead, and it starts to imagine how this can change the
relationship between citizens and the state.
Sens-Us consists of a set of five interactive physical input stations, which
ask questions in five different themes that are relevant to civic lives:
demographics, health, belonging, place, and trust. For each theme we explore
what data people are willing to disclose and with whom, and what information
they feel should be available to them. We also aim to give people insight into
how sharing their data can be beneficial for the common good, and explore how
this changes their views on data sharing.
Participants are first given a smart card which they insert in each station
to register their answers to a specific card ID and subsequently answer
questions using physical sliders and buttons. There is further a visualization
station in which people can insert their card to view how their data compares
to an aggregate of the collected data from all participants.
Sens-Us was created in partnership with the Civic Workshop and the British
Council and has been deployed in Somerset House in London throughout January
and February 2015 as part of a Civic Bureau exhibition. We feel this
installation fits very well in the HCI 2015 conference theme as it explores how
interactive technology can mediate our civic lives.

Today, when we go out and wander through the city, our digital presence
comes with us too. This project tries to define digital public space as a
dynamic of urban space, and conceptualizes physical and digital worlds as
layers that interacts with each other. In this manner, we are in the space
between these two layers and influenced by both.
My two cubes illustrate specific influences of digital data in my urban
environment, which is Istanbul for this work, through a scenario, in two
different conditions. The first condition is our world today where mobile
connectivity is ubiquitous and information systems are pervasive. In the second
condition, we go back to a decade ago where we do not have our smart phones,
hence mobile connectivity. And the scenario is, two friends call each other to
meet at a restaurant and travel to their destination.
Base of the cubes represent the physical world, and our physical presence on
it, while the ceiling represents digital realm. The threads show the data flow
between these two; the red threads show the digital public date we receive or
send and blue ones show phone calls. The 1st cube is full of red threads that
stand for our location services, location based social media connections and
transportation informations. On the other hand, the 2nd scenario's cube has
only two public data transfer which I sent with my public transportation travel
card.

"We Are Searching For" is a print piece that consists of the aggregation and
presentation of browser search terms. The site-specific work unfolds within and
outside of the exhibition space, with a physical print functioning as evidence
of the human and programmatic processes informing its creation. Prior to
installation, the artist gathers all of the browser keywords from as many of
the showing institution's public computers as possible. The terms are then
assembled into the print, resulting in a work that changes with each showing.
"We Are Searching For" is an inquiry into digital data ownership and an
exploration of the boundaries of public and private, permanence and
temporality. By transforming individual search terms into collective community
artifacts, viewers are prompted to engage with the ability of the search
keywords to simultaneously obfuscate, humanize, and entertain.

This project arises from the practice of roaming -- with physical movement,
a slice though a digital drift. Dérives augmented with GPS, smart
phones, encounters and social networking add informational pulls to the
established situationist activity. As 'foreigners' to one another (delineated
by Western Tradition to come from different academic/intellectual fields)
Shepley and Rowland test their ideas to form flowing confluences of creativity.
Through an emergent and disruptive anti-disciplinary collaboration Shepley
and Rowland create an intersection of 'visualized data' which seems to both
enhance (and hamper) its own logic -- i.e. an interactive format for community
and belonging. However, the work being less about an 'art language' and more
about conversations as travelers in data, 'foreign' to one another appears to
enliven a belief in our own connections and capacity to question.
Live data feed of viewers' interactions with the work in the space through
e.g. motion sensors will merge with other live data streams measuring e.g.
temperature, and combine in a visual data feed over time to produce a living
and emergent image of interactions.

This exhibition will present findings from Project Sky Cube: an experimental
three-dimensional recording of the electromagnetic wave spectrum in a one
kilometre cube of air above Lincolnshire. Air is the invisible carrier of
microbial life-forms, gases, chemicals, pollens and particulates. Recent
studies have found that plants and insects share complex airborne chemical
messages making it an ancient means of communication [1]. Human computer
interactions generate similar complex communications through air, as
satellites, radio, television, radar, wifi, and cellphones broadcast wave
vibrations through walls and skeletons. This project draws on the sociological
writing of Gabriel Tarde, who conceived air as a social assemblage: a space of
vibrations and flows that generate affective atmospheres at macro and micro
levels, rejecting established ideas of dualism like nature/culture and
organic/technological. These interactions often pass without conscious thought,
as the human sleep walks through life mesmerized and contaminated by their
social environment. As technological networks and biological experience merge,
social and cultural network communications become increasingly inseparable and
exploitable [2]. This installation (fig.1) places the audience within a cube of
air in the vicinity of RAF Digby, a GCHQ intelligence gathering station (fig.2)
which specialises in electronic communication surveillance. The cube was mapped
by flying a microlight aircraft through three levels of air (fig.3) while using
electromagnetic modulation equipment to record audio traces. Using mobile phone
technology and projected images the exhibition highlights the complexity and
vulnerability of our communications, audibly puncturing our perception of a
'natural' air space.

An individual's modern daily program of activities is likely to be entirely
depended on electronic tools and media as our personal interaction with others
become increasingly mediated by technology. Observation of the people
surrounding us has decreased so much, and I dare say that we are so absorbed by
our touch screens that these are becoming extensions of our hands.
I examine and demonstrate work in which handmade, minumental,
representational, full body portraits of individuals are created (Figures.
1,2). The familiarity of the human figure bridges the cognitive chasm between
the viewer and the object, and consequently understanding improves.
The viewer connects easily with the object and the object ceases to be an
object. It becomes the mould of our perception, facilitates understanding of an
issue, bridge voids, balances chaos, stands for itself and leads the viewer's
imagination to make subjective scenarios, reflections.
My investigation is about a complex web of interactions which take place in
the process, between agencies which might traditionally understood as artist,
subject, viewer, participant, recipient, audience and object. In times when
social media offers the power to every individual to promote and publicise his
or her lifestyle, personality, thoughts and so much more, at an instance, 3D
scanning and printing introduce an extra dimension to representational
depiction: What does sculpture have to offer? Its stillness remind us to stop
for a minute and think, dream, fly to another dimension, see things from
another perspective.